The present invention relates to a photovoltaic apparatus and tle method of manufacturing photovoltaic apparatus.
The structure and the manufacturing process of a prior art photovoltaic apparatus consisting in dividing a photovoltaic region formed by a stacked layer body composed of a first electrode, a semiconductor photo-active layer and a second electrode placed at the center on a substrate, and a non-photovoltaic region located at the outer circumference on the substrate, has been for example described in Japanese Non-examined Patent Publication No. 7-231015 issued on Aug. 29, 1995. The manufacturing method described in the publication is realized by the following steps: forming a first conductive layer, forming a first electrode on an insulated substrate, forming and dividing the formerly mentioned first electrode and forming a lower peripheral groove at the inner side of the whole circumference of the substrate separating the first conductive layer, setting the peripheral insulating material in the lower peripheral groove, forming a stacked layer body of a semiconductor layer including a semiconductor photo-active layer at almost the whole surface on top of the first conductive layer and the second conductive layer including the second electrode, and forming and separating the semiconductor photo-active layer and the second electrode by irradiating an energy beam on the peripheral material from a direction of the exposure of the second electrode and by taking off the semiconductor layer and the second conductive layer of the irradiated part thereby forming an upper part peripheral groove reaching the peripheral insulating material. Then, a protection layer is laid provided on almost the whole surface of the substrate including on the second electrode, to improve the waterproofing.
When a photovoltaic apparatus, which has been manufactured according to the prior art manufacturing method, is used outdoors for a long period of time, the moisture penetrates inside the lateral face of the outer circumference of the substrate, then in the outer circumference of the substrate, the second conductive layer, the semiconductor layer and the outer peripheral insulating material corrode and exfoliate. The moisture penetrates furthermore and the second electrode of the photovoltaic region and the semiconductor active layer corrode and exfoliate which leads to lower output characteristics. On the other hand the appearance is not acceptable because these parts corrode and exfoliate on the photo-receptive side which is visible of the photovoltaic apparatus.